Saturday, March 3, 2012

The Netherlands, March 2012

Yesterday, on March 2, I started my first visit to Europe in about 37 years, coming back to the general location I was in back in 1975, partly because of friends here in the Netherlands, partly because of a sentiment for the "Golden Age"of Dutch culture in the 17th century.

My general impressions so far are of a huge degree of modern architecture, an impressive train system (certainly compared to the U.S.) and great architectural heritage as well - none of that surprising, all of it fun to see. And lots of bicycles as well!
In terms of society here, I've begun to hear about the clash and controversy here around immigration, some of it overblown as you can see the blending of long-established communities, partly from former Dutch colonies (Surinam, etc.), some of it alive, on grounds of economic policy (whether to give generous benefits to immigrants or not) some of it based on cultural differences.

As the US Airways plane descended into at Schiphol Airport south of Amsterdam, I saw many greenhouses, whose exact uses I did not ask about, but which naturally reminded me of the "tulip culture"of the Netherlands, a big reality if also a sterotype:

Once in the airport, I began to get a sense of how easy it is to find English signs and English-language and American culture here, as at Schiphol, if with a mix of Dutch themes (e.g., a mock wind turbine representing one of the many such successors to windmills on and off the coast of this very flat country)....

and since then, one of the very fun "Dutchified" (my word) American imports I've listened to (while staying briefly at the home in part of... a 7-year old named Chris!), has been the Dutch-language version of the "Cartoon Network":

Very soon after landing, I went with Annette, one of my Dutch friends, to her hometown of Roosendaal, in the southwestern Netherlands (see http://maps.google.nl/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&t=h&om=1&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=109491266309856142472.000442977f34a686fafb8, but with a basic explanation that the town is very close to Antwerp, Belgium). The train we boarded went through a succession of towns in what may be the most densely-populated section of (the densest country in the world? - I've read about 1000 people per square mile, which may or may not be accurate); those cities included....

Leiden, which offered a convenient sense of the old and sometimes romanticized, as with the windmill here (there haven't been many of them here for a while)

and its modern steel, glass and so on, here colorfully covered in a tower across from the city's railroad station....

The Hague, where I was impressed (sometimes favorably but not entirely from an old-building bias) with the extent of the contemporary and the "large", again knowing that this quick train ride only gives one slice of one part of the cities in question....

[not trying to make more of an impression above than this building's dramatic form already does, and I'll hopefully correct this mis-direction soon!]

and including some late-19th century elegance in its train station, where my view below may only show actual original portions just to the right, with most of the elements here likely to be tasteful but retro renewals....

Delft, which I think of very favorably for Vermeer's famous 17th-c. "View of Delft", even though I did not see that view reflected in my passing through the city, but seeing any part of this town for the first time was certainly one segment of a "celebrity ärt history locales" route for me on March 2; Delft presented visual delights including what I'll guess is a late 19th-c. water tower....

an 1878 (concert hall? library?)....

and one of the number of trams found in Dutch cities....

and Rotterdam, where the main sense was of modern towers, but just before them, hints of a somewhat older residential character....

The (1980's and up?) corporate style to follow was not surprising partly because I had read of the city being largely destroyed by bombing in World War II; a few days ago, near the end of a wonderful history called "Ämsterdam" by the historian Geert Mak, who is well-known in the Netherlands, I read a disturbing comment, from a Dutch official in the 1950's, somehow saying that maybe Amsterdam should be renovated (a la 1950's U.S.-style urban renewal) like Rotterdam - which one could say was in the context of European cities which were not bombed still sometimes succumbing to the sense that "newer and bigger" would mean better; in any event, my first introduction to Rotterdam was big on such very formerly "Ämerican" looking sights as these....

[again, not trying to be artistic here; modern forms are already catchy enough, and hopefully I can redirect these forms more vertically:)!]

The biggest human attraction for part of the ride was Tara, a beautiful 16-month old on the train with her parents, all of them from the town of Zoetermeer near the Hague....

She was not shy about reaching out in curiosity....

as I will not be here in Roosendaal this Sun. afternoon, March 3, so more to come after that....]